Easy fennel seed & smoked garlic sourdough grissini

These crisp grissini are easy to make and have bags of flavour. I often make them using some sourdough starter that I had discarded prior to feeding the main starter, just adding more flour and water to give a dough that handles well.

Fennel and smoked garlic grissini

To be honest, you really do not need to be at all precise with the ingredients. Just add enough flour and water to the starter to give a dough that holds its shape.

You can make these with commercial yeast, in which case omit the starter and mix in about 5g easy-blend yeast with the flour, adjusting the amount of water as necessary.

You can sprinkle extras such as crushed fennel seeds, grated Parmesan, crushed sea salt dough over the shaped dough.

Fennel and smoked garlic grissini up very close

Fennel & smoked garlic sourdough grissini: makes several dozen

200g sourdough starter

200g strong plain flour

100-130ml water

6g fine salt

1 tablespoon fennel seeds, dry-fried until they start to jump in the pan, and cooled

2 teaspoons smoked garlic powder

(1) Mix all the ingredients together, adding enough water until the dough comes together and is not sticky.

(2) Knead for about 5 minutes, cover with clingfilm and ideally leave to prove for several hours until slightly risen: it need not rise as fully as you would want for sourdough loaves. That said, I have made these without any proving and they turned out great, rising a little in the oven.

(3) Turn the dough onto a floured surface and tear off small pieces. Roll each piece thinly and cut to whatever size you prefer. Alternatively, roll out the whole ball of dough very thinly and cut into thin strips.

(4) Place the thin strips of dough onto a well floured baking tray – you can place a sheet of baking parchment on there instead if you or prefer – and dust the tops with flour. They can be placed close together. Cover and leave in a warm environment until a little risen.

(5) Bake in an oven preheated to 200C(fan) for between 8-12 minutes, depending on the size, taking care not to burn them.